5 Quick Coronavirus Updates As Montclair Schools Reopen

MONTCLAIR, NJ — 2021 has been a challenging and complicated year. But the Montclair Public School District continues its quest towards “normalcy in the fall,” Superintendent Jonathan Ponds says.

Ponds recently offered some coronavirus-related updates in a letter to the school community. See them below.

In-person/Hybrid for PreK-5 - Distancing parameters will be reduced to three feet as of May 17. Resource Room students will attend five days a week for pull out and inclusion with general education class instruction at this time. Related Services for students and the CST staff will be in-person five days a week beginning May 17. The CDC guidance requires teachers to keep a distance of six feet from students. When children are having snacks inside because of inclement weather, we will aim for 10 feet of distance.

In-person/Hybrid for Middle Schools - We are now using three feet distancing beginning May 10. Three rotation groups will be in effect the first week; however, we are working on the details to collapse to two rotation groups. We are planning for in-person instruction for all Resource Room students, in-person Related Services and CST staff to begin May 17, four days a week and moving to five days on May 24. Our Buildings and Grounds team will be cleaning and sanitizing on a regular basis and we are moving to in-person Wednesdays on May 24.

In-person/Hybrid for High School - The plan is to have high school students begin in-person/hybrid learning before the year is out. We will bring our freshmen back first and our Buildings and Grounds team is preparing the George Inness Annex. On Monday afternoon we will send out the start date for in-person freshmen. Our plan is to open quickly but safely. Please stay tuned for information on start dates for upperclassmen.

Opening September 2021 - Our goal is to have all grades PreK-12 in-person, full time, five days a week when schools open in September. We are eager to begin the school year anew and welcome everyone to the buildings. The 2021-22 calendar was approved at the board meeting this Wednesday and our first day of school for students is September 9. We will follow guidance from the CDC, NJDOH, and Montclair Health Department at that time. Additionally, we will continue to conduct consent-based, pooled testing to monitor and address any positive cases of COVID-19 expediently.

Pooled Testing for PreK-5 - Pooled testing was completed in all elementary schools with second grade Mountie cohorts on Tuesday and Bulldog cohorts on Thursday. Students were cooperative, independent and self-swabbed. Thank you to staff who were ready for the nurse testing team and helpful throughout the process. Please prepare your children by showing them this instructional video. We are hopeful that this mitigation step will be a tool that will help us curtail the spread of the virus.

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